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Arvada's Gary Giambrocco remembered

Family business head known for hard work and a warm heart

Giambrocco

The Giambrocco family business currently has its fourth generation of family members working as employees.

courtesy photo

Posted
Tuesday, June 19, 2018 11:53 am

Celebration of life

The family will hold a Celebration of Life in honor of Gary Giambrocco and invites those who wish to gather in his memory to join them on June 23. The celebration will be held at the Arvada Center (6901 Wadsworth Blvd, Arvada, CO 80003). Guests are encouraged to stop by between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Gary’s name to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

That is how Gary Giambrocco, 70, of Arvada would greet customers and family members alike as the head of Giambrocco Food Service, providing food supplies to folks from Ft. Collins down to Colorado Springs. The business was started by his father in 1933, and he bought it in 1984.

Now, the business passes on to a new generation. Gary Giambrocco died of cancer on June 11.

The disease was swift according to daughter Bernadette Soehner, who said he was diagnosed only in February.

“(The doctors) said ‘do what you love while you have time’ so he went right back to work and talked to many of his longterm customers that he had relationships with,” Soehner said.

Son-in-law Stanley Soehner said Giambrocco was a real father to him, and truly lived the quote “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

“And he always worked, sometimes 16 hours a day, and he never took a day off,” Stanley Soehner said.

Bernadette Soehner laughs when asked about what her father did for fun, and answers “other businesses.” She said he was particularly fond of his Arvada car washes.

“That was his fun, after 16 hours of work, he’d go work at the car washes.”

Born in Denver on May 11, 1948 to Joseph and Genevieve (Niccoli), Gary Giambrocco was the second of three children. A graduate of North High School in 1966, he went on to receive an associate’s degree from Northeastern Junior College, and attended the University of Northern Colorado before joining the family business in 1968.

Four years later he married his high school sweetheart Connie Boosinger, and the two moved to Arvada. They had two daughters, both of whom still live in the city. The family kept growning, and now includes nine grandkids.

“At least five are always there (at the company headquarters in Denver) and two are actually employed there,” Bernadette Soehner said.

A personal touch

“He was the nicest guy in the business, period,” according to Joe DeMott at Pietra’s Pizzeria in Wheat Ridge, who has done business with Giambrocco for 32 years. “He called everyone ‘babe’ and meant it.”

The relationship is generational, going back to when DeMott and Giambrocco’s fathers did business as well.

DeMott said the difference between working with Giambrocco or one of the big supply companies was stark, with the family-business personable vibe being so much stronger with Gary.

“He’d call me every day,” said DeMott. “If I forgot to call him back during the day, he’d call me back at 2:30-3 a.m. I think he worked 27 hours a day.”

“You would never have known how much he was selling because he made you feel like his only customer,” DeMott said. “It’s really amazing the impact he had. Right now it’s talk of the town. Everybody’s missing him.”

Bernadette and Stanley Soehners say that to their father, those long-term business relationships meant everything.

“One thing my dad was really good with, was he’d carry a lot of these restaurants when they weren’t making it,” said Bernadette Soehners, referring to lines of credit and easy repayment plans. “A lot of people are still in business because of him.”

Giambrocco is survived by his wife, two daughters and his sisters Sharon Ebina and Kare Giambrocco.

The family says they will carry on the business, just the way Gary Giambrocco did for so many years, though Stanley Soehner estimates eight different people have had to pick up the slack since his departure. He says the family is doing its best to fill those shoes, but some things cannot be replaced.